


Life Goes On

by Zetal (Rodinia)



Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: M/M, Retirement, non-graphic injury
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-30
Updated: 2017-12-30
Packaged: 2019-02-23 23:17:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,332
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13200672
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rodinia/pseuds/Zetal
Summary: 24, almost 25, isn't old, but Yuri sure feels that way.  It's time for him to start thinking about moving on.





	Life Goes On

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Nomanono](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nomanono/gifts).



> Written for the Otayuri Gift Exchange!
> 
> Prompt: Yuri's Olympic gold celebration. Yuri's proposal to Otabek. What are they like post retirement?

Their first Olympics had been disappointing. Both Yuri and Otabek missed the podium in 2018, Otabek just barely losing bronze to JJ once again and Yuri suffering the consequences of a badly-timed growth spurt. Their second Olympics had been so much better. Yuri could not imagine a better podium than the one he’d stood on that day – himself on top, Otabek on one side with the silver medal, and Katsudon on his other side taking the bronze. Katsudon was going to be retiring after that, but at least Yuri had managed to convince him to stay through the Olympics.

In the run up to the 2026 Olympics, though, Yuri felt exhausted. “I’m not even that old. If Viktor could skate back in PyeongChang, I should be able to skate in Salt Lake City. Almaty should be easy for me!”

Otabek tugged the end of Yuri’s ponytail. “I thought you hated being compared to Viktor.”

Yuri scowled and turned to glare at Otabek, but he couldn’t argue the point. “It used to be all anyone ever talked about, I was the second coming of Viktor and I’d pick up where Viktor left off and just be an extension of his legacy. I’ve gotten away from that.”

“In that case… you know Viktor only stayed as long as he did because he was staying for Yuuri. He’d have been happy retiring the first time he quit, as long as he could keep coaching Yuuri." Otabek tangled his fingers in Yuri's hair. "Call me selfish, but I’d rather see you retire than sit back and watch you fall in love with a younger skater and stay on the ice just to compete against him.”

Yuri leaned into Otabek. Despite having grown to be over six feet tall, he’d stayed slender and flexible enough that he could make himself small enough to fit in Otabek’s lap comfortably. He’d heard the whispers about Otabek having tamed a tiger into a pet cat. At first, they’d pissed him off. He’d almost broken up with Otabek over it. Thankfully, he’d come to his senses at the thought of not having Otabek in his life. Now, he found the whispers funny. “I wish you were skating with me. This year without you… it’s been hard. I love having you here all the time and you being able to come with me no matter what, but it’s just not the same as seeing you on the ice. You want to go back to Almaty, don’t you? For good, I mean, not just for the Olympics?”

Otabek’s intent ever since Almaty was announced as the host of the 2026 Olympics had been to retire in his home city, hopefully after winning one more medal for Kazakhstan at their own Olympics. A career-ending injury put an end to those ambitions. He hadn’t hurt himself on the ice, or on the motorcycle that his coach swore would be the ruin of him. No, it couldn’t be that easy to find something to blame. He’d been walking home from the store, arms full of groceries, when he hit a patch of black ice and slammed to the ground. Normally, falling wasn’t a problem, but he wasn’t expecting it. He broke a wrist trying to break the fall, and he’d torn three ligaments in his knee, which was the one that actually ended his career. He could, theoretically, do a year’s worth of rehab and possibly come back to be an old skater in a sport for the young, or he could retire. He wasn’t making the Almaty Olympics either way, so he’d decided to hang up his skates.

“I want to, yes. Eventually. Don’t quit skating for that. Saint Petersburg is nice, and that’s where Viktor and Yuuri are, and we’re very much enjoying ourselves and our lives.”

“I’m not quitting skating so you can go home. I’m quitting skating because I’m fucking exhausted and I can’t get excited about it the way I used to. I don't even care about the records or pushing to get the quint toe loop or whatever. It's time to let a new generation of snot-nosed teenage hotshots take over.”

Otabek's fingers went still as he stared at Yuri. “You’re quitting skating?”

“After the Olympics. Maybe I’ll stick around for Worlds, maybe not. Russia’s got other skaters who can hold onto the slots. I’m sick of it all. I’m not gonna announce until after the Olympics, just to be sure, but I don’t think I have it in me to learn another routine and compete just to prove I’m the best _again_. I've proved everything I have to prove. I’m not Viktor or Yuuri, there’ll be people sad to see me go because it means they’ll never beat me, but no one looks to me as their inspiration.”

“I did,” Otabek whispered.

“I know." Yuri stretched up to kiss Otabek. "Which is why I’m sure I don’t have my own version of Yuuri out there. You’re right here beside me already.”

Otabek stuck his tongue out at Yuri. “Took you long enough to figure that out, too, tiger. You might have your own version of Kenjirou, though.”

“Oh, I do," Yuri groaned. "Even Kenjirou thinks Pavel is annoying! We’ve had a couple years against each other, though, he’ll get over losing me and find rivals his own age.”

 

It was the last Olympics for a lot of the old guard. Leo barely made it, Guang Hong and Kenjirou had both announced they were retiring, JJ had planned on being there but when Isabella got pregnant with their fourth child he decided to retire early. Phichit was going only because Thailand didn’t have anyone else to send – there was a relatively huge crop of Thai men’s singles skaters in novices and juniors, but only one had come up to seniors and he was hurt as well.

Yuri managed one last flawless program, no falls, no stumbles, his performance was there, and thus one last gold medal and one last set of world records. Standing on the podium beside Guang Hong and American Nate White, Yuri knew. It was time to retire. He’d just put forth the greatest performance of his career, Pavel and the others could handle Worlds, he was done.

At the post-competition press conference, Yuri felt a little bad when the first question was directed at him. “Yuri, we know that a lot of skaters are planning on retiring soon. Have you given any thought to when you’ll hang up your skates?” No one was going to talk to Nate or Guang Hong at all, not after the bombshell Yuri was about to drop.

“I have, actually. I’ve skated my last performance. I’ll be putting in my withdrawal from Worlds first thing in the morning, and I will not be competing next season.” Yuri waited while the shouting died down, trying to pick out individual questions to answer. “I’ve been talking this over with my coaches since the Finals. I don’t know yet what I’ll be doing after this. Otabek has been wanting to return to Almaty, and now that I’m not skating, I expect we’ll likely do that. Yuuri and Viktor have been talking about leaving Saint Petersburg once I retire as well, and without family to tie me to Russia, I’m happy to leave to be with Otabek and his family. I don’t know what I want to do, but I do know what I don’t want to do – I don’t want to coach. If Viktor and Yuuri want me to come in and teach someone a specific skill or something, I’ll do that, but this way I avoid Yakov and Viktor and Yuuri’s revenge of me having a student like myself.”

“Any possibility of you going into choreography? You have Viktor Nikiforov as your coach but insist on doing your own choreography, so is that something you’d be interested in doing for others?”

“I don’t know. Maybe. I did my own choreography not because I had something against using Viktor, but because Viktor told me that I had the ability and he wasn’t going to do my work for me when I could do it for myself. I’ve talked about that a lot, really, there’s no excuse for you not to know that. I’ve thought about it, but I figure one big decision at a time is plenty.” Not that he'd stuck with one big decision, but he'd wait and let them bring the other one in.

He didn't have long to wait. “Of course, it helps that you know someone who could help with arranging music…” Yuri just stared at that reporter. “You seem to plan on having Otabek Altin in your future, and this last season he’s done not just your music, but several other skaters’. The two of you could be a music-choreography one-stop shop for skaters.”

Yuri’s eyes roamed the edge of the crowd, looking for the black leather. “It’s not something we’ve talked about. I don’t know if Otabek will want to stay that close to the skating world now that we’re both done being skaters, but if he does, that would be amazing. That said, I do plan on Otabek being a part of whatever my future looks like.” He finally found the dark eyes he’d been seeking. “In fact, if you all don’t mind, Otabek, can you come up here for a minute?”

Otabek made his way forward, face guarded as he approached the table. “Yuri?”

“I’ve been planning this for years, although you were supposed to be sitting beside me instead of me having to call you up. I don’t know what I want to do with my future yet, but I know who I want to do it with.” Otabek’s eyes widened. They’d been talking about getting married once they were both retired for years now, so it wasn’t like this was completely out of the blue, but Otabek clearly hadn’t been expecting Yuri to propose quite so soon after announcing his retirement. “Are you gonna marry me or not?”

Otabek didn’t answer in words. He just took the hand Yuri stuck out for the handshake. Of course, unlike all those years ago, this time Yuri held on to Otabek’s hand long enough to get the ring out of his jacket pocket to put on it. Otabek then melted back into the crowd to let the press conference continue.

 

When Viktor and Yuuri took Kenjirou to Worlds, Yuri felt a little off. He didn’t want to go, but it felt weird not to be going. Otabek understood, and hugged Yuri. “I feel it too. I could have tried to come back. I still wouldn’t be skating at Worlds, but I could be on the ice.”

“You still can, you know. We could go back and do a victory lap season,” Yuri offered.

Otabek smiled. “We could, but why? I like the idea of a musician/choreographer partnership.”

“Viktor and Yuuri said they wanted to talk to us about something after Worlds. I’m gonna wait for that before I make a decision, but I like it too.” If Viktor and Yuuri were thinking what Yuri assumed, that's what was going to happen, too.

“Any idea what they’re thinking?”

Yuri shrugged. “I assume they’re going back to Hasetsu after this season and they respect that you want to be in Almaty but they want to make sure we know we’re invited.”

“Would you want to do that?”

Yuri looked up at Otabek’s face. The look in his eyes very clearly said that he would be willing to, if that was what Yuri wanted, and he'd do it without complaint or recrimination because that was who Otabek was. Five years ago, Yuri probably would have tested that. Now he knew better and wasn't going to test his fiancé or put his own interests first. Almaty was home to Otabek in a way that Yuri had never known a home outside of his grandfather. “Honestly… I love Hasetsu. I just don’t know that you and I would fit in there as a permanent thing. Almaty’s more our scene.”

 

As it turned out, Yuri’s assumption was close, but off in a very important way. Viktor was looking at creating a rink like he’d always wanted to have himself, with an in-house music guy and choreographer along with the coach, but not in Hasetsu. “But you guys bought a house there already!”

“Of course we did! We’ll be visiting regularly!” Viktor sobered up quickly. “The main rink, though, should be in a bigger city. We’d been thinking Fukuoka, but ever since you blew out your knee, Otabek, we’ve been looking into Almaty. It’s a good distance from both Russia and Japan so that we could have students from both, along with taking Kazakh students to help build that program. Yuuri’s been thinking about going back to school and getting certified as a physical trainer, which would be much easier for him in Almaty than in Hasetsu, or even Fukuoka. We’ve got plans put together for either city, and when you two have had the chance to talk this over and make your decision, let us know which one to get started on.”

Yuri and Otabek stared at each other. They’d been prepared to say no to moving to Hasetsu, regretfully, but this changed a lot. “Have you talked to your current students about this?” Yuri finally managed to ask.

“Yes. Raisa and Ilya both said they’ll come with us wherever we end up, Noburo doesn’t want to go back to Japan but if we go to Almaty that’ll be fine, and Kenjirou’s retiring too. So it’s just Ruslan we’d be losing, and that was going to happen after this season pretty much no matter what. We shouldn’t have any trouble finding new students, not with the success we’ve had.”

“Yura, do we have anything to think about?” Otabek asked.

“No.” Yuri jumped up and hugged both Viktor and Yuuri. “Come to Almaty.”


End file.
